Sahara:CEN-SAD; meeting in Rabat,fight on terrorism priority

Organisation looking for new sponsors after Gaddafi's death

(ANSAmed) - RABAT, JUNE 12 - The absence of Gaddafi is felt
these days in Rabat. After three days of talks in Morocco's
administrative capital, yesterday the community of Sahel-Saharan
states (CEN-SAD) presented its new political agenda. The first
point is the fight against terrorism, trans-border crime - drugs
and arms trafficking in particular - and separatist movements
that currently pose a risk to the stability of the entire area.

The community has also decided to form a security council as
part of the African organisation. But how and where CEN-SAD will
find the necessary funds to carry out its plans is an open
question, where its main sponsor used to be Muammar Gaddafi.

''But now that the colonel is dead,'' sources in the Moroccan
foreign ministry told ANSAmed in confidence, ''the question
everybody is asking is, who is going to pay for this?".
The many African reporters present at the closing of the
conference are skeptical, showing little faith in the re-launch
of CEN-SAD. ''People in Africa do a lot of talking,'' said a
reporter from Guinea, ''but the word few people know is
'concreteness'''. Some have suggested that Morocco, which is
trying to gain regional leadership, may become one of the
organisation's main sponsors. This idea was also suggested by
the national and international press in the past days. The
delegates united in Rabat have stressed the importance of the
meeting in Morocco, which they see as ''an important step'' in
the reformation of the organisation, still disoriented by the
tragic death of Gaddafi.(ANSAmed).